Page 403 of Light Leech

Zhu, do something!

“He is holding me as much as you, bakuh!”

“No more disruptions, you Medislav rat,” said Kim. He glanced at another man on the council whose facial structure was unmistakably slavic. “No offence to you, Ljubo.”

He pulled on my line. “Come, sit with your companion.”

My body moved to his command. I knelt beside Ralia and wanted to turn my head to see her, but my body was no longer mine to control.

“Are you going to listen?” Kim asked.

He forced me to nod my head.

He clapped and laughed. “Look at him now. What an obedient little pig.”

“Why not get rid of him if he’s such a bother?” a woman asked. “We only need her, right?”

“No, no, no,” Kim said. “You know well, Karen, that we are not to dispose of tools before using them. Maybe it is better to say we should not toss this lumen card before spending everything on it. I digress. Dokkaebi will explain it better without my rambling. On with it then.”

He forced my head to look up at the goblin. I could only see Ralia in my peripheral view, but he had forced her to do the same.

“The Journeyman Gui is mine as well, Kim,” Dokkaebi said.

“Yours, ours. It’s all the same.”

“As is your Light Leech, homunculus. That is mine and it always has been.”

“How dull do you think I am? I have always understood this. I do not need it to live.”

“But to use light lines…”

They rambled on for another minute. I had thought Dokkaebi would be some supreme leader, but Kim spoke to him as if he were just another coworker. Was that because he was a part of the goblin Gui? Was Dokkaebi a Gui? I tried to open my mouth to ask, but all that came out was a muffled shout through my sealed lips.”

“Explain it already,” Kim said as he kicked me from behind. “I want to get this one on track to fusion before he tries to think of something desperate.”

“It’s not my fault you never explained everything to your underlings,” said Dokkaebi.

“I already explained why we couldn’t reveal anything! You’re–”

“Enough. I’ve had it with your complaints, Kim.” He turned to face us. “Ralia.“ As he spoke her name, Ralia’s head snapped. I still couldn’t see her face but heard her sharp moan as they forced her attention.

He moved forward in his prism, boney fingers out like they were ready to cup her chin if he had not been an incorporeal being. “Ralia, Ralia. I will not lie, I enjoyed our time together. Fraught with strife and contradicting motives, I found you to be a brilliant challenge. Had dear Deleon placed me in anyone else’s mind, I am sure they would have been quicker to surrender. Here, let’s hear what you have to say. You liked me by the end, didn’t you?”

“Zeg, no.” She spat on the floor. “Zeg you.”

“Now that isn’t dignified behavior. I guess we’ll have to put a vice on that mouth again. A pity, seeing that you are maybe the only one in your group to have ever made me laugh. He looked at the council members. “You all need a history lesson then? Dear Leader Kim never cared to tell you about the Journeymen?”

“We know about that,” Don said.

“Really? Well, looks like we’re done here. On with the data transfer, Kim.”

“No! Don, I am going to seal your mouth just like theirs if you speak out of line again.”

“Well, he asked and I answered!”

“We don’t know how you fit into the puzzle,” Karen said.

Dokkaebi leaned back, kicking his legs up and crossing them as if on an invisible futon. He rested one arm behind his head and used the other to add more drama to his tale. “The Journeymen, you know, who serve Nuwa and want this planetary preservation filth, you all know about that, right? Glad we’re at least caught up to that. Soon after the end of what many call ‘The Journey to the West,’ our dear gui–still very much alive at that time–were sent to deal with the warring kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla or what many may know as Korea for much of the old earth’s history. I don’t need to delve too deep into my tirades and the conspiracies of that time, though they brought me great joy. It suffices to say that the Journeymen’s serpent of a master sent me to do away with the joy I was sowing in Silla for our dear Gong. He should have devoured that planet years before, but you know, ‘environmentalists’ i.e., Luxist progenitors.”